The energy industry has been a powerhouse of the Gulf region’s economy. Climate change is forcing a change in the energy landscape, including a national commitment to dramatically reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. GRP is supporting work to help the region navigate this energy transition and support safer production and transportation of all offshore energy.

Examples:

•  Offshore Situation Room

•  The Use of Dispersants in Marine Oil Spill Response (2020)

•  Advancing Understanding of Offshore Oil and Gas Systemic Risk in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (2023)

Many Gulf communities are experiencing the compounding effects of multiple disasters that have prolonged recovery periods and increased social vulnerability to future catastrophic events and other disruptions. GRP’s programming supports the health and resilience of Gulf Coast communities by working with institutions, organizations, and other stakeholders to identify health and resilience priorities, enhance and integrate the evidence base into planning and decision making, and support the implementation of innovative local projects.

Examples:

• Compounding Disasters in Gulf Coast Communities, 2020-2021: Impacts, Findings, and Lessons Learned

• Grant Awards: Disaster Related Mental Health

• Investing in Resilient Infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico: A Workshop

The Gulf Coast is an evolving landscape at the nexus of human development, environmental restoration efforts, coastal erosion, and sea-level rise. GRP is connecting communities and decision makers with scientific knowledge to inform management practices and protect the unique environments of the Gulf region.

Examples:

•  An Approach for Assessing U.S. Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration (2022)

•  Understanding and Predicting the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current (2018)

GRP is dedicated to supporting the next generation of leaders in the Gulf region. In support of this goal, GRP is working with students and academic institutions to build the skills needed to address the major issues facing the Gulf region now and in the future.

Examples:

•  Studio Design Course 

•  Gulf Scholars Program

•  Workforce Development for the Energy Transition

GRP will foster the development of science, engineering approaches, and medical knowledge based on the needs of the Gulf region in order to generate a new and integrated scientific understanding of the socioeconomic, biological, and physical systems that interact with the Gulf region.

GRP seeks to foster science for solutions through implementing and evaluating existing approaches and pilot projects. In keeping with its funding, timeline, and mandate, GRP aspires to use the next few decades to change the trajectory of some of the current trends the Gulf region experiences. This will require translating, communicating, and applying current understanding, as well as supporting new research about the Gulf region’s social and environmental systems to inform decision making across different jurisdictional levels.

GRP will build partnerships and strengthen networks to elevate its work, engage and reach the people it seeks to serve, and achieve the full promise of the program well beyond the duration of GRP itself. Partnerships are essential to program impact as the scope of the issues and scale of assets at stake exceed the capacity of any single entity, including GRP. The investments and efforts of each individual organization are amplified when leveraged through partnerships within the scientific community, and even more importantly with people and organizations active in the Gulf region.

GRP will identify trends and data to document how the Gulf region evolves over time. The GRP mandate includes a provision for monitoring, which will be addressed through tracking progress and change across the region in areas closely related to GRP’s mission. This includes the collective results from the work of other Deepwater Horizon settlement funds over time. In total, these efforts will help GRP affect positive change and assess its programming consequences.